1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming system wherein a plurality of image forming devices having a plurality of functions relating to image formation are connected to one another through communication media, the image forming devices, a function setting method and a storage medium.
2. Description of Related Art
An image input means comprised of a scanner and an image output means comprised of a printer are ordinarily integrated in image forming devices. In some image forming systems using such image forming devices, a plurality of image forming devices are connected to one another through communication media. In such systems, an image output means of an image forming device forms an image inputted from an image input means of another image forming device, or transfers an image inputted from an image input means of another image forming device to an image output means of still another image forming device through the communication media.
The image forming devices in such image forming systems have a variety of functions relating to image formation such as a printing method, and have an operation command input means for giving commands to set these functions, a display means for displaying values of the functions set by the operation command input means, and so forth. In each of the image forming devices (hereinafter referred to as “the present image forming device), the functions relating to image formation can be set in an individual destination device selecting mode for arbitrarily selecting a destination device, which is able to execute a desired function for an image inputted from an image input means of the present image forming device among the present image forming device and the other image forming devices connected to the present image forming device through the communication media, and in an automatic destination device selecting mode for automatically selecting a destination device, which is able to execute a desired function for an image inputted from an image input means of the present image forming device among the present image forming device and the other image forming devices connected to the present image forming device through the communication media.
If the functions are set in the individual destination device selecting mode, information indicating each image forming device and information indicating corresponding functions that can be executed by the indicated image forming device are displayed on an information input screen. An image forming device that is able to execute a desired function is selected as the destination device by an inputting operation of designating the image forming device as the destination device on the information input screen, and the selected image forming device executes the desired function.
If the functions are set in the automatic destination device selecting mode, function information indicating all functions that can be executed respectively by the image forming devices is displayed, and an image forming device that is able to execute a desired function can be selected automatically by an inputting operation with reference to information representing the desired function in the function information.
In the system that is capable of setting the functions relating to the image formation in the individual destination device selecting mode or in the automatic destination device selecting mode, however, the information indicating each image forming device and the corresponding information indicating all the functions that can be executed by the indicated image forming device are displayed on a function setting screen of the information input screen when the functions are set in the individual destination device selecting mode. Thus, a large amount of function information is displayed on the function setting screen, and it is, therefore, necessary to designate an image forming device from a large amount of information displayed on the function setting screen, and to designate a desired function from the functions of the designated image forming device.
When the functions are set in the automatic destination device selecting mode, the information indicating all the functions that can be executed by the image forming devices is displayed on the function setting screen. If many image forming devices are connected through the communication media, the function setting screen displays a large amount of function information. It is necessary to designate information indicating a desired function from such a large amount of function information.
Thus, the function setting screen displays a large amount of information in both destination device selecting modes, and this deteriorates the operability in setting the functions and causes errors in setting the functions.